Category: Spotlight

I delivered a TEDx talk earlier this year (see here), but due to technical difficulties, the video was never uploaded. So only a couple of hundred people to date have seen that talk.

But that’s about to change. I’ll be giving that talk at TEDx Brighouse, in Richmond, British Columbia, on Saturday, November 3. This is a group of very enthusiastic young people putting on their first TEDx event. Tickets here.

I know many of you have been waiting patiently for the video of this talk, and I’m sure it won’t be long after the 3rd before it’ll be up on the TED Youtube channel.

It’s been busy lately! Interest in Crisis of Control has skyrocketed, and I’m sorry I have neglected the blog. There are many terrific articles in the pipeline to post.

If you’re new and finding your way around… don’t expect much organization, yet. I saved that for my book (https://humancusp.com/book1). That contains my best effort at unpacking these issues into an organized stream of ideas that take you from here to there.

On Saturday, February 3, I will be speaking at TEDx Pearson College UWC on how we are all parenting the future. This event will be livestreamed and the edited video available on the TED site around May.

I have recorded podcasts for Concerning AI and Voices in AI that are going through post-production and will be online within a few weeks, and my interview with Michael Yorba on the CEO Money show is here.

On March 13, I will be giving a keynote at the Family Wealth Report Fintech conference in Manhattan. Any Crisis of Control readers near Midtown who have a group that would like a talk that evening?

I’m in discussions with the University of Victoria about offering a continuing studies course and also a seminar through the Centre for Global Studies. My thanks to Professor Rod Dobell there for championing those causes and also for coming up with what I think is the most succinct description of my book for academics: “Transforming our response to AGI on the basis of reformed human relationships.”

All this and many other articles and quotes in various written media. Did I mention this is not my day job? 🙂

In other random thoughts, I am impressed by how many layers there are in the AlphaGo movie. A friend of mine commented afterwards, “Here I was thinking you were getting me to watch a movie about AI, and I find out it’s really about the human spirit!”

Watch this movie to see the panoply of human emotions ranging across the participants and protagonists as they come to terms with the impact of a machine invading a space that had, until weeks earlier, been assumed to be safe from such intrusion for a decade. The developers of AlphaGo waver between pride in their creation and the realization that their player cannot appreciate or be buoyed by their enthusiasm… but an actual human (world champion Lee Sedol) is going through an existential crisis before their eyes.

At the moment, the best chess player in the world is, apparently, neither human nor machine, but a team of both. How, exactly, does that collaboration work? It’s one thing for a program to determine an optimal move, another to explain to a human why it is so. Will this happen with Go also?

My friend, fellow coach, and globetrotting parent Fionn Wright recently visited the Pacific NorthWest and generously detoured to visit me on my home turf. He has produced this video of nearly an hour and a half (there’s an index!) of an interview with me on the Human Cusp topics!

Thank you, Fionn. Here is the index of topics:

0:18 - What is your book ‘Crisis of Control’ about?
3:34 - Musk vs. Zuckerberg - who is right?
7:24 - What does Musk’s new company Neuralink do?
10:27 - What would the Neural Lace do?
12:28 - Would we become telepathic?
13:14 - Intelligence vs. Consciousness - what’s the difference?
14:30 - What is the Turing Test on Intelligence of AI?
16:49 - What do we do when AI claims to be conscious?
19:00 - Have all other alien civilizations been wiped out by AI?
23:30 - Can AI ever become conscious?
28:21 - Are we evolving to become the cells in the greater organism of AI?
30:57 - Could we get wiped out by AI the same way we wipe out animal species?
34:58 - How could coaching help humans evolve consciously?
37:45 - Will AI get better at coaching than humans?
42:11 - How can we understand non-robotic AI?
44:34 - What would you say to the techno-optimists?
48:27 - How can we prepare for financial inequality regarding access to new technologies?
53:12 - What can, should and will we do about AI taking our jobs?
57:52 - Are there any jobs that are immune to automation?
1:07:16 - Is utopia naive? Won’t there always be problems for us to solve?
1:11:12 - Are we solving these problems fast enough to avoid extinction?
1:16:08 - What will the sequel be about?
1:17:28 - What is one practical action people can take to prepare for what is coming?
1:19:55 - Where can people find out more?

Last Wednesday I gave a presentation on the Human Cusp to the students and faculty of Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific at their Innovation Day. I was warmed by their generosity, attentive interest, and gentle welcome. The questions were thoughtful and provocative. Can’t wait to return!

The provocatively-titled 1989 book “Are You a Transhuman?” by the even more provocatively-named author “FM-2030” says:

The American presidency is slowly evolving into a ceremonial position–like the monarchies in West European countries. By the second or third decade of the new century presidential elections in the U.S. will probably have about as much significance as today’s Academy Awards. Thanks to national television presidential elections will probably grow more glitzy–but they will have less and less substance.

I think we could find much to agree with there. He goes on to attribute this waning of significance to an anticipated flourishing of electronic voting on issues (referenda), which is technologically feasible, but unappealing to those holding power.
FM-2030 was born Fereidoun M. Esfandiary but changed his name to reflect his belief that by the year 2030 humanity would have undergone a radical transformation. Human Cusp isn’t foundationally transhumanist, but does suggest a strategy that is undeniably transhuman.